An Assessment of College Students' Knowledge of the Importance and Awareness of Family Health History

Objective: This study assessed the knowledge of and the collection of family health history (FHH) amongst a student population in the United States.;Methods: Fifty-seven (57) college students from Howard University in Washington, D.C. were recruited. The Fisher Exact Test was used to analyze the resulting data.;Results: College students who agreed that knowing FHH could be beneficial in the prevention of cancer and agreed that having family members with the same or similar medical conditions influenced their personal risk to have the same condition understood the importance of FHH (p < 0.05). Knowledge of the components necessary for an appropriate FHH was associated with those students who were female (p = 0.05) and those matriculating in the natural sciences (p <0.05). The perception of the role of a genetic counselor influences the importance of FHH (p < 0.01). The degree to which college students' comprehended the inheritance of breast cancer influenced their perception or awareness of the importance of FHH.;Conclusions: The majority of the participants were knowledgeable of the components needed for an appropriate FHH and valued FHH as important. Because the sample size of participants was small, expanding the study to other campuses to capture information from larger, more diverse groups will be of benefit in determining if college students were appropriate historians for genetic counseling sessions.